OP
OP
nautical_nathaniel
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Hey guys, sorry I haven't been around much. I got a new job back in May and it really hasn't left me enough time to be on Reef2Reef as much as I used to be.
The tank is still going along strong, In the past few months I've made a few changes to equipment and added some new fish and lost others.
My Icecap Nano K1 skimmer died on me (motor seized and quit working) so I ended replacing it with what may be seen as some as overkill: the Aquamaxx HOB 1.5. This skimmer is a beast and probably adds another gallon of water volume to my tank. I've been traveling a lot due to my job so I haven't been able to tune it fully, so right now it isn't running but I hope to have it going soon. In the meantime I've been doing extra water changes and feeding less to combat some diatoms and a little bit of cyano that popped up.
My mangroves are still going strong and growing steadily. I feel like they do help a bit with nutrient export, but I mostly like them because they look neat and are one of my favorite plants.
Fish-wise I've had quite a few changes since my last post. My diagonal goby jumped out of the tank and became a crispy goby and I rehomed my Lemon Chromis because he/she was becoming too aggressive. I had gotten a tiny Lubbock's Fairy Wrasse that was doing great, but it also found a gap between the lid and the tank and jumped out. I then did something I thought I wouldn't do again until I got a bigger tank, I got another clownfish haha. I got an ORA frostbite clown that was only 1" long. After that my beloved Longnose Hawkfish "Snooter" disappeared, at which point I threatened to tear down the tank. My girlfriend convinced me otherwise and I continued on. I then got a Indonesian Swalesi Basslet that has since become the dominant fish in the tank, but not too dominant which is nice. I also now have a beautiful juvenile Mystery Wrasse that is my crown jewel in the tank. Other than the wrasse, the clown, and the basslet, I have a spunky blue neon goby and a pair of pearly jawfish that I eventually want to breed, and of course I can't forget my Flame Shrimp. I probably have too many fish in there, but they don't seem to mind each other and the corals are doing great and parameters are pretty good, so in that sense things are doing okay. All the fish are healthy as well, as I've been super stingy lately about their health and well-being before I bring them home. I waited an entire week for my mystery wrasse to show consistently good behavior, health and eating habits before bringing it home.
I've also since replaced the lid with an Innovative marine lid kit, it was quite the thing to put together but it looks pretty good and closed all the gaps I had.
I replaced my wavemaker with a Hydor Aqamai KPS wavemaker that I first got at Reef-a-palooza, but had to have a replacement sent in due to a short in the command module of the pump. The new KPS works great and does a good job at keeping things flowing.
I really have to thank my girlfriend for keeping me going despite all the stresses of starting a new high intensity job that has me running all over the country almost weekly, and especially after I wanted to give up when Snooter died, I loved that fish quite a bit haha She's been a big help taking care of the fish while I'm out of town.
Again, sorry I haven't been around much to give updates, I am hoping that my job quiets down a bit and I'm able to give more updates more often soon. If anyone has any questions, feel free to reply to this thread. I have email alerts turned on!
